Space travel has been abandoned in the twenty-second century. It is deemed too dangerous, expensive, and inconvenient—and now the all-powerful Fishhook company holds the monopoly on interstellar exploration for commercial gain. Their secret is the use of "parries," human beings with the remarkable telepathic ability to expand their minds throughout the universe.

On what should have been a routine assignment, however, loyal Fishhook employee Shepherd Blaine is accidentally implanted with a copy of an alien consciousness, becoming something more than human. Now he's a company pariah, forced to flee the safe confines of the Fishhook complex. But the world he escapes into is not a sanctuary. Its people have been taught to hate and fear his parapsychological gift—and there is nowhere on Earth, or elsewhere, for Blaine to hide.